Hinges are known in the art, which comprise a motor drive, typically electric, acting to open/close the door.
For example, GB2350863 teaches to realize an oven provided with an electric-motor drive to open and close the cooking cavity. Such an oven provides the user with a manual control which, when operated, activates an electric motor for opening or closing the afore said doors. The electric motor, which acts directly as a door hinge, is sized to apply a force sufficient to fully open and close the doors, even when they are hinged along a horizontal axis.
In the known art such motor drives, for example constituted by electric motors coupled with a gearmotor or another kinematic chain connecting them to the fixed and mobile supports of a hinge, are therefore sized for moving the door completely and independently, and thus they are motor drives very expensive and bulky, also involving large power consumption.
Moreover, it is not possible to associate these solutions known in the art to pre-existing hinges, because the electric motor substantially replaces the conventional hinge.
Finally, in case of malfunctions of the motor or a power failure, such a solution makes it difficult to open the door, since the absence of a traditional hinge does not allow an easy opening and closing of the door, that are provided for example by means of a spring or other known means adapted to impose a predefined law of motion to the door itself, which are usually present in conventional hinges.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a hinge which solves the above mentioned problems of the known art.
Another object of the present invention is to implement a hinge for doors which cover at least in part a compartment, preferably of a household appliance, provided with moving means that are simple, inexpensive and small in size.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hinge for doors which cover at least in part a compartment, preferably of a household appliance, provided with motor means which can be easily coupled to the structure of pre-existing hinges.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hinge of the type provided with motor means which can operate even completely manually.